When mother and CEO Andreen McDonald suddenly vanishes, investigators uncover secrets inside her home that point to a chilling truth. The closer they look, the darker her “perfect” life becomes.


CourtListener.com - https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/10041084/andre-sean-mcdonald-v-the-state-of-texas/
News4SanAntonio.com - https://news4sanantonio.com/news/local/husband-arrested-in-connection-to-remains-found-search-area-for-missing-andreen-mcdonald
Kens5.com - https://www.kens5.com/article/news/volunteers-continue-search-for-andreen-mcdonald/273-dcfa9ede-c861-4528-9152-5d046d5a962c
KVOA.com - https://www.kvoa.com/news/national/investigators-say-charred-skeletal-remains-found-last-week-are-those-of-andreen-mcdonald-missing-since/article_7dbe9d81-31b8-5d6f-aa53-988a989a844d.html
CBSNews.com - https://www.cbsnews.com/news/andreen-mcdonald-san-antonio-andre-mcdonald-convicted-manslaughter-48-hours/
Wikipedia.com - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Andreen_McDonald
KSAT.com - https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2024/03/08/family-of-andreen-mcdonald-awarded-210-million-wrongful-death-lawsuit-against-andre-mcdonald/
AETV.com - https://www.aetv.com/real-crime/murder-andreen-mcdonald
TheCinemaholic.com - https://thecinemaholic.com/andreen-mcdonald-murder/
Yahoo.com - https://www.yahoo.com/news/key-evidence-disappearance-death-andreen-035800058.html


You're listening to an Oh No Media podcast.
Hey everyone, welcome back to the podcast. This is Murder with My Husband.
I'm Payton Moreland.
And I'm Garrett Moreland.
And he's the husband.
And I'm the husband.
All right, you guys, I have some exciting news. Our holiday merch is available right now. I know it seems a little early, but we wanted it to be available so that you could get it and then wear it all of December. So, go check it out. Also, good news is we have restocked the Murder with My Husband coloring books. I've received a ton of messages asking when those will be restocked, and they are restocked right now. So, go check it out.
I don't really have much for my 10 seconds this week. Honestly, just been watching a lot of hockey for those who like hockey out there. Football. I don't know. That's about it. Watching sports, working. I'll update you guys on some bagel stuff coming soon. We’ve got some pretty cool updates. That's all I got. Nothing too crazy this week.
Again, I'm sorry. Payton's actually—we're recording earlier than we normally do because Payton is taking off to see her sister. She has to go out there last second for something.
Yeah, it's about all I can say. Lots of secrets going on right now. On that note, let's hop into today's case.
Our sources for this episode are courtlister.com, newsforantonio.com, kens5.com, kvoa.com, cbsnews, kat.com, aetv.com, thecinemaholic.com, and Yahoo.
Now, obviously, as you guys know, Garrett and I work together every single day. It is amazing that we get to do this together. But don't get me wrong, there are certainly times where it can be challenging. And just like any job, it has its ups and downs—especially when you don't really have those boundaries between work life and home life.
If something goes wrong during the workday, it's kind of hard not to take that home with you because you're already in your home. Not to let it trickle down. You're just so intertwined when you do the same thing with each other every day, which is why we have that age-old saying: don't mix business with pleasure.
Now, luckily, Garrett and I have found a dynamic that works for us. It's actually never been too difficult for us, despite the fact that I feel like this situation would typically be difficult. I think working with your significant other takes one of two paths: either it makes you and your relationship stronger, or it can completely tear you apart, causing irreparable damage—leading some people to make choices that they never thought were possible.
Today, we are headed down to San Antonio, Texas, to meet a 29-year-old mother and successful businesswoman named Andreen Macdonald.
Andreine was actually born in Port Antonio, Jamaica, back in 1989. Now, growing up in Jamaica, Andreen and her family honestly didn't have much, which was why she kept her head down and focused hard on school. She was an excellent student growing up. Andreen knew she wanted to pursue a better life for her family, and she was really working hard to achieve that goal.
After graduating from high school, Andreen went to a community college in Jamaica to study business and marketing. But her real dream was to transfer to a college in America and start her own successful business there one day.
And then around May of 2009, Andreen met someone—a 29-year-old U.S. Air Force captain who had returned home to Port Antonio, Jamaica, for a funeral. His name was Andre Macdonald.
Okay, now obviously, because of the last names, we know that Andre and Andreen meet in Jamaica, and actually, just a few months after meeting, they get married in July of 2009. There was just one catch: Andre, who was home in Jamaica for a funeral, was actually stationed back in the United States, in San Antonio, Texas.
Now, I know this is confusing because we have Andre and Andreen, and then also they are in Port Antonio, Jamaica, but he's actually stationed in America in San Antonio, Texas. So, a lot of similarities. But this young Jamaican couple meet and get married, and he is stationed in the United States. This actually lines up with 19-year-old Andreen’s plans to move to America and continue her education there, so it kind of works out great.
She applied to the University of Texas San Antonio and was accepted. In no time, she and her newlywed were packing her bags, and she was preparing to get her degree in business and finance in America.
A few years later, in 2012, the couple also welcomed a baby girl named Elena. And around that same time, Andreine finished school and got to work starting her own business. She always knew she wanted to do something to help other people, so she actually chose to get into the assisted living business and open up her own facility.
At the time, she was just 22 years old, and since she’d come from pretty humble beginnings, finding the money to start this business was going to be the biggest hurdle.
I've actually heard they usually do pretty well, too.
Really?
Yeah. Mhm. Don't ask me how I know this, but I know this.
Well, luckily for her, her husband Andre was willing to lend a hand. He liquidated his 401k and sold his car to give Andreen the money she needed to get Starlight Homes—that's what she was naming it—off the ground.
Now, at the beginning, Andreen only had three or four residents, but with her wonderful reputation, that actually quickly grew. So, over the years, Starlight Homes Assisted Living becomes a multi-million-dollar company. And eventually, Andreen was actually able to open a second location in the San Antonio area.
By then, Andreen and Andre were equal partners in the business, splitting it 50/50. Andreen managed the business and did most of the work when it came to the day-to-day operations, and meanwhile, Andre took more of a back seat, considering he was still working for the Air Force, having moved up the ranks by that point from captain to major.
Though while the business itself was doing well, the couple was facing some challenges at home—particularly with their daughter. Elena was having a hard time with her speech and was later diagnosed with autism. This couldn't have been easy for the couple or their marriage, but a lot of their friends said that if this was super hard on them, it really didn’t show. Andreen was always volunteering what little free time she had to the causes she cared about, and she still found time to show appreciation to her husband.
On February 16th, 2019, she threw Andre a lavish 40th birthday party at their beautiful San Antonio home. For a lot of people, that was actually the last time they would see Andreen McDonald smile.
Now, one thing everyone knew about Andreen was she loved working out. For her, going to the gym was equivalent to going to church. She woke up early every morning to get to the gym by 5:30 a.m., so she could still get to work at 8. She never skipped a day, and she was strong because of this. According to Andre, she could lift about 300 pounds. She was practically a bodybuilder, so she wasn't messing around.
Dang.
But on the morning of March 1st, 2019, just two weeks after that lavish party, Andreen doesn't show up to work. After a few hours pass, some of her employees call to check on her, but it seems like her cell phone is off.
Again, this is 2019.
So, they call the gym to see if her personal trainer had met with her that morning, and they say the same thing: no, Andreen never showed, and the trainer hadn't even been able to get in touch with her.
Okay.
Now, by this point, they're also trying to get in touch with Andreen's family. Eventually, one of Andreen's employees actually gets a hold of her mother, Moren, who is also living in the San Antonio area now—so she has come to America. And when she says she also hasn't heard from her daughter, the employees go pick her up and take her back to Andreen’s house.
They also call Andre, who's like he hasn't seen his wife or heard from her this morning either. He woke up, got his daughter off to school, and then went to work over at Lackland Air Force Base. So now he's worried, too. He's like, “What do you mean she didn't show up to work?” So he's rushing back to the house to check, but no one's home.
Then he goes over to a local hospital to check for her there. He knows that his wife suffers from really bad migraines, so his theory is maybe she had one so bad she needed to go to the doctor’s.
When he asks the front desk if anyone has checked in with the last name McDonald, they say, “Yeah, actually, there is someone in room three by the name of McDonald.”
"It's got to be a different McDonald."
So, instead of going to room three—he's at the hospital, he's driven there—he leaves the front desk, doesn't go to room three, goes back out to his car, and drives back home without going in to check if that McDonald is his wife.
He says, okay, he forgot his cell phone, and he thought, “Okay, I found her. It's more important that I let everyone know she's okay, because at this point, everyone's looking. Everyone's worried. It's more important I let them know she's okay before going in to check on her.”
And that's just crazy, because there's no way if you were to take a hundred people and ask them what they would do, I promise you every single one would say, “I would be running to that room to see if my significant other was there.”
Unless they were all murderers—then different story.
So, by the time he's back at his house, the police are there too, because everyone has been looking for her. They have called the police. And that's because while he was at the hospital, her mother Moren had arrived at the home, and she had discovered some pretty scary things around the house. She called the police because she felt like they were signs of foul play.
Now, unfortunately, Andre gets there and he's like, “Yeah, she's at the hospital, though.” So, police call the hospital that Andre was just at to confirm whether Andreen had checked in or not and was in room three.
They find out, “Yeah, actually there is someone in room three with the last name McDonald, but it wasn’t Andreen.” Which he obviously could have figured out at the hospital instead of the police having to confirm it over the phone.
Which means Andreen really is still missing, and leaving her daughter and business behind is not something anyone believes she would ever willingly do. This theory is supported by evidence left all over the home.
So let me get into the crime scene.
The fact that her phone, purse, keys, wallet, and car are all still at the house in 2019 is a really big deal. There are also bloodstains and hair on the light switch of the couple’s bathroom. On top of that, they discover a shovel, two gas cans concealed in trash bags, a torn receipt from a Lowe’s hardware store, a hammer in the trash can, and worst of all, a small burnt patch of grass in the backyard with what looks like a piece of one of Andreen’s shirts in it.
Okay.
Okay.
So, of course, one of the first people they speak to is Andre. Not only does his story about going to the hospital and coming back seem a little weird—especially the part where he didn’t go in and check on her before he left—he also tells police, well, yeah, they did get in a fight the night before.
He says they had been at a tax preparer’s office earlier in the day, and that’s when he learned that Andreen had opened a separate business without his knowledge. He says when they got home that night, they got into an argument, but he got into his car and drove down to a gas station to cool off. He says they kept arguing over text messages there, but eventually he calmed down, went home to speak to Andreen in person, and clear the air. Only by the time he got home, he says Andreen was already asleep in the guest room. He figured that’s where she was the next morning when he woke up, didn’t see her, and left to take his daughter to school.
Here’s what’s weird though about this—because obviously Andre is seeming suspicious.
Police check security cameras from the gas station and the hospital, and they confirm that Andre was at both of those locations when he said he was. They also don’t notice anything suspicious on Andre—he has no bruising, no scratches, nothing indicating he had been in a fight. Plus, the two did seem to continue their argument over text into the late-night hours of February 28th, just like he said, the night before she was reported missing.
Not to mention, Andre denies wholeheartedly that he has anything to do with his wife’s disappearance.
So this whole thing is pretty unusual. Here you have a suspect—an Air Force major, mind you—admitting to fighting with his wife the night before she disappeared, but there seems to be video evidence corroborating at least part of his story. But at the moment, police weren’t even totally sure this was a homicide investigation.
So the following day, Saturday, March 2nd, a team of about 70 people go out searching for Andreen McDonald.
I was going to say, so there’s no body right now, which is kind of a big issue.
Mhm.
Yeah, just that.
Meanwhile, police are looking deeper into Andre’s story and honestly just the history of the couple in general—trying to figure out everything about them. This is always the first step in a missing-person investigation when there is a spouse. What are the finances? Is there an affair going on? What are the dirty secrets? Do they fight a lot? How do friends see their relationship?
Police find that while their businesses were doing well, it seems Andreen wasn’t interested in always working with her husband. During that meeting the day before she went missing, like I mentioned, Andreen had opened a new business and had omitted Andre’s name from the paperwork. Apparently, Andre felt like Andreen was trying to secretly squirrel away some earnings for herself into this new business account—even though the two were married, and in the state of Texas, he would still be entitled to half her earnings.
So police have to wonder, though—would this have been enough to set Andre off? This hardly seems like a motive for murder, more just kind of like a marital hiccup, though.
Apparently, there’s a lot more to the story.
Turns out the marriage itself had been on shaky ground for a while. And according to some, Andre had been physically abusive toward Andreen in the past during their relationship, which may be why she started to stray from the marriage.
Police find out Andreen had sought comfort in an old flame—an ex named Aubin Hall. He was a businessman who had been living in her hometown of Port Antonio, Jamaica. The two had dated back when they were teenagers, and two years prior, back in 2017, they had actually reunited while Andreen was home in Jamaica doing some charity work. They kind of just kept talking. It was long distance.
That is, until 2018.
Andreen gets two new tattoos, and one includes a date on her wrist, but she doesn’t tell Andre what the date is for.
That’s pretty bold.
That’s wild.
It’s insane.
Also, it seems like every time you do a case like this, it’s all just the same, right? Infidelity. Domestic abuse. It always ends up in the same aisle.
So this whole date on her wrist that she can’t explain made Andre suspicious, especially when he kept asking, What’s the significance of this? She never gave him a real answer. After some social media digging, Andre discovers the truth: the date was Aubin’s birthday.
Oh my gosh, dude. To be married to someone and do that? Have a tattoo? Honestly, that might be worse than having an affair, because you’re making it permanent on your body. That’s crazy.
Also, when Andre is going through social media, he realizes the second tattoo is a replica of one of Aubin’s. So now they have matching tattoos.
Does that make sense?
Yeah. No, it makes sense.
This sets Andre off. He tells her to call off the affair and get the tattoos covered immediately—either that, or they were getting a divorce. Fair. He also tells her she’s never allowed to go to Jamaica again without him. Again, fair, but hard because it’s her hometown.
Not wanting to risk her business and everything she had built, Andreen does what she’s told. She gets the tattoos covered and cuts off contact with Aubin—or so she said. Around this time, she also tells a friend that if anything were to happen to her, it would be because of Andre.
Interesting.
In fact, the couple’s friend Andrew Russell shows police text messages between him and Andreen—messages where she said, Someone’s going to snap. Andrew said he had even seen it for himself recently. He had been at the couple’s home in December 2018 when the two got into a physical fight. He walked into the kitchen and found Andreen and Andre wrestling each other on the floor. The next day, they were just laughing it off like it happened all the time, but Andrew felt it was dangerous and not normal behavior.
Yeah, it’s not okay.
So, knowing that Andre had motive and had been physically abusive toward his wife in the past, police are ready to secure an arrest warrant. By the afternoon of March 2nd, Andre is no longer willing to speak to police. He lawyers up and stops answering questions. It seems like he’s closing in.
That same day around 2 p.m., investigators tail him to a gun shop where he purchases a 9mm handgun and bullets. When police see this, they decide they have to step in. Where is he going with a gun when he knows he’s a suspect? Is he heading home? His daughter is there.
They confront Andre outside the gun store as he’s walking back to his car. After a somewhat violent confrontation, police get him in handcuffs and turn him over to military authorities for a mental evaluation.
I wonder if he was going to take his own life—possibly the life of his daughter as well.
At the same time, investigators continue compiling evidence against Andre and they find more quickly. Police remember the ripped-up Lowe’s hardware receipt found at the couple’s home, so they go to the store and ask for security footage. Sure enough, Andre is on camera on March 1st buying a bunch of suspicious items. We’ve seen this a hundred times: a hatchet, heavy-duty trash bags, gloves, an axe, a log splitter, two five-gallon gas cans. All things you might need if you were going to kill someone and get rid of the body.
Keep in mind, they also found that patch of burnt grass in the McDonalds’ backyard that had a piece of Andreen’s clothing in it.
They should almost—well, there’s nothing you can really do, and it's so rare that this actually happens, so I understand why it isn’t a rule. But anytime someone’s in Lowe’s buying something that looks like a kill kit, it feels like it should be flagged. Like, sorry, you can’t buy all this together or the police are coming. Or at least you’d have to do an interview to check things out.
I mean, they could put it in place. It’s just so rare. And a “kill kit” can look similar to a lot of normal things.
Yeah, it can look like a bunch of different things.
So what do they do next?
Police go back to the house with a search warrant to collect these specific items—or at least whatever they hadn’t already recovered. When they get there, they check Andreen’s car and find the shovel, the axe, the trash bags—honestly, many of the items from that Lowe’s purchase.
And even more damning, they discover a pile of clothes in the garage. Clothes that belong to Andreen and have traces of blood on them. By this point, they also have information back about the hammer found in the trash the day before. The lab says it has traces of DNA on it, and it appears to be a match to Andreen’s.
So not only do they have evidence that Andre bought all the stuff that looks like you’re going to try to dispose of a body, they also have a hammer with her DNA on it, which feels like a murder weapon.
Yep.
Obviously, they still need to confirm that this is more than a missing person’s case because it’s only day two. And while investigators are moving fast—gathering evidence, identifying a suspect—it’s taking a bit longer to find Andreen, or rather her body. The only thing everyone knows is that there is no way this mother left her businesses and her young daughter behind with no notice.
The following day, March 3rd, the Air Force finishes their mental evaluation on Major Andre McDonald. While the exact results aren’t clear, what we do know is that they release him.
It’s hard because, let’s be honest, it feels pretty easy to lie your way through a mental evaluation. A psychiatrist can analyze your answers and your body language, sure, but if someone is determined to lie, it’s still possible. It’s kind of like those behavioral tests—your love language, personality assessments—you can always choose the answers that reflect the person you want to be rather than the person you are. As a perfectionist, sometimes you read the questions and want to choose the “ideal” answer. So you have to really force yourself to be honest. And even then, it’s all based on what you report.
So yes, there is a lot a professional can analyze, but it still feels like something that would be easy to manipulate. Just my two cents.
After the Air Force releases him, local authorities arrest him—but not for killing Andreen. Instead, they arrest him for evidence tampering, since the Lowe’s receipt was torn up in the family’s trash. Of course, this is just a precursor until they find the body. That’s what they’re hoping for, but we all know how hard that is when you don’t have a body.
Unfortunately, Andre doesn’t stay behind bars for long. He’s released on $300,000 bail and placed under house arrest. He’s only allowed to go to and from work with an ankle monitor.
I feel like I should know the answer to this—and it’s been five years of doing this podcast and I’ve never asked—but when you’re released on bail or bond, say it’s half a million dollars, are you required to put up that full amount in cash? Or is it more like there are places that post it for you and you pay them back?
That’s what I think it is. I mean, I’m sure it can be both. Obviously there are different options.
Because sometimes we’re doing cases and someone’s bail is a million dollars and they pay it, and I’m like… how? How do they just have a million dollars cash sitting around?
You know what’s also crazy about bail? Let me look something up real quick.
They determine bail based on your history—whether you're a flight risk. You don’t really get a chance for bail if they think you’ll run. That’s why, for me, because he was arrested at a gun store, I’m shocked he got bail. What’s to stop him from buying another gun? And they also base it on how much money you have, to make it proportionally difficult.
Sometimes people with severe charges don’t get million-dollar bail because the state doesn’t think they’d even have access to that kind of money.
Okay, sorry to interrupt, but there are a couple things I didn’t know. This could vary by state, but here’s what I found online:
Bail is money the court requires to release someone from jail while they wait for court. If they show up to all court dates, the bail money gets returned, minus small fees. If they skip court, the bail is lost.
I don’t know how I didn’t know this.
Is this state by state?
I think this is how it works everywhere.
I guess we’ll find out. A listener will correct us.
For example, if bail is $5,000, you pay $5,000 directly to the court or jail. You get most of it back at the end as long as the person goes to court. That’s 100% upfront.
Or you use a bail bondsman. This is what most people do. It’s basically a loan, but the part you pay is a fee you won’t get back. For example, if bail is $5,000, you pay the bondsman 10%—$500. They cover the $5,000 to the court. The $500 is not refundable, and then the person has to show up to court. If you don’t show up to court, then they can come after you for the full amount.
That’s crazy.
Anyway, in case anyone didn’t know that—I didn’t. For some reason, I always thought that the $300,000 or whatever you paid… I thought the court kept it. It makes way more sense now that you get it back. I don’t know how I’m five years into this and never looked it up.
Imagine you’re a bondsman for someone who has charges like financial fraud. Their charge is literally taking people’s money and not paying it back, and then they go on the run. As the bondsman you’d be like, you have to show up—and also, I probably shouldn’t take your case. They probably turn those people away.
Okay, anyways. Some good information.
So obviously he’s released. He also can’t have any contact with his daughter. And throughout his bond hearing, he’s laughing and smiling. It’s odd. Meanwhile, his wife—the mother of his child—is still missing, and he’s in court, presumably because he killed her.
Around the same time, the sheriff’s office holds a news conference encouraging anyone with information on Andreen or her whereabouts to come forward. At this point, droves of people around the San Antonio area start coming out to help search for the missing mother. This includes the Texas Search and Rescue teams and a volunteer search party formed by ex–Air Force airman Bobby Green, who may have known the couple personally. Even the FBI gets involved, and a $5,000 reward is offered to anyone with valuable information.
Unfortunately, none of these actions turn up anything of value.
That is, until April 4th, 2019.
This is five weeks after Andreen’s disappearance.
That day, a hiker walking along a trail adjacent to a highway comes across charred human remains. The sheriff’s department is called out to the scene, feeling optimistic that this might be Andreen. However, they determine the remains belong to someone of much smaller stature—a female around 5'2" or 5'4". They are eventually identified as 39-year-old Norma Pacheco. So, while one missing person was found that day, the search for Andreen MacDonald continues.
Still, Andreen’s family and friends never give up hope. And on July 11th, 2019—133 days after her disappearance—everything changes.
That day, a man named Clifton Kleundi goes out to a 50-acre private ranch just six miles from Andreen’s home. He says he was wandering around the property looking for a cow skull to use as a decoration when he is met with an overwhelming stench. He does find a skull—just not a cow skull. He realizes it is human and immediately calls police.
When the sheriff’s office arrives, they find a body buried under wood and other animal parts. They believe it had been set on fire. Among the debris is a wig believed to belong to Andreen, as well as a body part with a cross tattoo—the same tattoo Andreen had.
The remains are collected and examined by a medical examiner. After confirming dental records, they are certain they have found 29-year-old Andreen McDonald.
Now, because she had been out in the field so long and partially burned, the medical examiner is unable to determine the exact cause of death. But she has many injuries that suggest it was a blunt object—possibly a hammer, like the one found with her DNA on it back at home. She also had a fractured spinal cord, a broken rib, and a broken jaw.
With that, police are more than able to secure a new arrest warrant for Andre—this time for murder charges. With his GPS ankle bracelet on, it is easy for officers to find him at his house. Two days later, on July 13th, he is taken into custody, and this time his bail is set at $2 million.
For the next two years, he sits behind bars until his bail is reduced, finally getting out on bond while he waits for his court date in 2023.
Meanwhile, the prosecution begins putting together their theories on what happened, especially because Andre is pleading not guilty and refusing to talk about the night his wife died. The state is hinging their case on domestic violence and the fact that he was essentially losing his wife—she was keeping secrets, opening new business accounts, possibly preparing to leave him.
But when it comes time for Andre’s court appearance, he takes the stand as the only witness for his defense.
No. And he tells a story that paints himself as the victim. Here’s what he says in court.
Of course, dude. Of course.
He claimed that on the night of February 28th, 2019, he and Andreen had that appointment at the tax preparer’s office, where he found out she’d started a new company without his knowledge. But the way Andre saw it, Andreen was stealing money from him.
Back at the house, the two got into a heated argument, which was when he left to go to the gas station to cool down. That part is shown on security footage.
However, he says that when he finally got home, Andreen was waiting for him—not asleep in the guest room like he originally said. He says she was angrier than before. He says he told her they should just get divorced, split the business in half, and go their separate ways. But he claims that enraged her.
He says that’s when she charged at him and spit in his face. He claims he grabbed her head and they accidentally head-butted each other, splitting her face. When Andreen realized she was bleeding, she started yelling that Andre had attacked her. Then, according to him, she began throwing punches.
He says he finally got her to the ground and kicked her a few times to protect himself. The whole thing, according to him, was self-defense.
Which is so funny because—dude. No offense, or actually, yes offense because he killed someone—but she obviously didn’t want to be in the marriage. She was having an affair. The story is just so ironic.
Exactly.
And the next part of his story is even more unbelievable. He claims that after he kicked her and she was on the floor wheezing, their seven-year-old daughter walked into the room. So, Andre says he picked her up, took her back to bed, and calmed her down for 30 minutes. And by the time he came back out, his wife had died.
He wasn’t even in the room when she took her last breath. That’s what he says at trial.
To try to support this, the defense played videos showing Andreen working out and how strong she was. They were basically arguing that even though she was the woman and he was the man, she was stronger than him.
But when the prosecution asked why he never called 911, he said he needed to get his wife out of there before his daughter could see. Andre said he took her to the field, stripped her naked, and burned her clothes.
This is not adding up. The hammer. And why would you strip her naked? Come on now. And a hammer with her DNA on it is not “accidental” or “self-defense.”
No, you’re not getting out of this one.
And we know Andre went to Lowe’s the next day to buy all of those products. So there’s no way he took the body to the field while his daughter was asleep, because he didn’t buy the items to dispose of the body until the next day. The whole story collapses.
Ultimately, the jury returned a verdict finding Andre McDonald—Air Force major—guilty of manslaughter. He was given the maximum sentence of 20 years behind bars, plus an additional 5 years for tampering with evidence.
Wow. So he’ll get out in 25 years.
Unfortunately, I don’t know exactly what convinced the jury that this wasn’t premeditated. Maybe because he bought the supplies after the fact? They must have found some reason to downgrade it to manslaughter. And honestly, if they even partially believed his story, that can fall under manslaughter—“heat of the moment,” not preplanned—even though it’s completely ridiculous.
Unfortunately, in the wake of Andre’s conviction, the businesses were closed. Andreen’s parents did get a few small wins. They were awarded custody of their granddaughter, and they also pursued a civil suit against Andre. That same year, in 2023, Andreen’s estate was awarded $210 million in damages, which Andre was responsible for.
One of the most shocking developments came just a day after Andre was sentenced. News broke that his father back in Jamaica was also awaiting trial. So he gets sentenced, and the news comes out: the father of the man just convicted of murdering his wife is also awaiting trial for the murder of his ex-wife and the murder-for-hire of his current wife.
The apple does not fall far from the tree.
In 2024, his father was found guilty of murdering the ex-wife and of murder-for-hire regarding the current wife, and he was sentenced to life in prison.
Dude, what are the chances? That has to be the first time ever, statistically. That’s got to be extremely rare for a father and son.
Andre has filed appeals. They’ve been denied.
Perhaps the most heartbreaking part of all of this is what their daughter has gone through. During Andre’s sentencing hearing, his daughter wrote him a letter that was read aloud. It said:
“To my dad,
You killed my mother.
You took away my life and you broke my heart.
You hurt my feelings.
You’ll pay for what you did.
You’ll be punished forever.”
Elena has since gotten some help through a foundation called Eagle’s Flight Advocacy and Outreach, which supports people living with and struggling with autism. If you’d like to look into the organization, you can find them at eaglesflightsa.com.
And that is the murder of Andreen McDonald.
It would be really hard to be a child and have to deal with that for the rest of your life. Extremely difficult. That whole situation would be difficult. That level of betrayal.
All right, you guys. That was our episode, and we will see you next time with another one.
I love it.
And I hate it.
Goodbye.